We are all lovers, devotees of a higher power, thousands of lovers, but the Beloved is one for all. He whom we desire is the beloved of the whole world and is the one God for all men, not specifically for Muslims only, or for Hindus only, or for Christians only.

The ocean of intoxication

There is a religion above all religions that is one for all; that is Truth. It was given out by all Masters whenever They came. We have forgotten it; that is all.

I go everywhere. People of all religions invite me; they love me, and I love them. Perhaps their love is reciprocal or my love is reciprocal; I don't know. But they do love me, and I love them. When I go to them, I see I am at home because they also stand for the very same Truth. But while standing for this Truth, they have gotten into formations – water-tight compartments. Sometimes, in the zealousness of being in that water-tight compartment, they unfortunately establish divisions. But I take them from the viewpoint of the religion that is above all religions. The word "religion" purely means: re means "back"; and ligio, "to bind": "to bind back our souls to God." This religion is above all other religions, which are meant to lead us to this very high religion. We are already one, but unfortunately we have forgotten this. Masters see all of life only from its level as a man, or as a soul, or as the higher Truth. This duality has been shaken off by the Grace of my Master. I love all.

We are worshippers of Truth; we are to bring out the very Truth that has already been given. The pity is that people have forgotten it; that is all. When I go to them, they claim me as their own. And first, I claim them as my own. That is how it is.

There is no dearth of outer forms of religions, but all these outer forms of religions are meant for that higher religion, which is one, or Truth. We should always have that ideal before us. There can be no duality, no strife, no concussion. The pity is that we do take up the way – apparently we try to follow that higher religion; but for want of practical progress, we do not have it at home in our hearts.

The present day is an age of the practical life. People do not believe unless there is something practical. So we must have all our Truth in a practical way, and it will appeal to all. This Truth will prevail. Times are changing. This is the only thing that can appeal to everybody. This is the only ground on which all of us can sit together.

So I wish each one of you to be practical. Do not try to reform others. Reform your own self. When you are reformed, all the world will be reformed. If anybody hates you, love him. After a while he will come around. If any man lowers himself, it affects him the most. If anyone has done anything wrong to you, and you also stoop to harm him, you do more harm to yourself first. This is what my Master once wrote to me: "Many kinds of people come to the Satsangs: some come only to criticize; others come out of devotion." He said, "If a bad man does not leave off his bad habits, why should a good man leave off his good habits?" It is not good if a man thinks that way; that is, returning in kind whatever he receives. If you sense any evil, return it with love. That is all you have to do. That will give you peace first, and then others. When you hate anybody, perhaps not outwardly, but at heart, it reacts in the heart of the other. So, we should have air- conditioned hearts, into which no hate should penetrate. That is all I can say.

Once it so happened in the life of Buddha, that some man came to Him and began calling Him names very angrily. He remained until it grew dark, and when he was going to leave, Lord Buddha told him, "Look here, friend. Hear me first. I ask you one question. If anybody brings a present to give somebody, and he does not accept it, with whom does it remain?" "Of course with the one who has brought it." "So, dear friend, the present that you have brought I do not accept."

That will change your life first; that is the criterion. You might say, "A tit for a tat is all right." But it should not be done that way; for if anybody does it, he goes down. When you return love, in the other way, that is God's Grace on you; and God is more pleased – the God in the Master, too. It is a very simple thing. For one slight shortcoming, we go on spoiling our own life. I do not mean to say that those who show hatred are doing good: no, they are also not doing good. They are harming their own serves, first. Where fire burns, the earth around it is heated first, then the heat spreads farther. You should have pity on your own self to save your own self.

To find God is not difficult, I tell you. To make a man is difficult. God Himself is searching for a man. He does not find a man. If, when two beasts fight, they lock horns, what is the difference between a man and an animal? Man is the highest in all creation. He is God in man. Even if you don't take up the spiritual way, and you live up to these things, I tell you honestly, you will find peace. You will have transvisions; you can portend things. To be spiritual is not this, but it is a very good ground on which Spirituality can dawn. Spirituality is just knowing oneself and being cognizant of God all the time.

I am telling you no new things. These same old, old things are given in our scriptures; but we don't try to follow or understand them. Even if we have understood them, we don't put them into practice. If you begin to love, you will find a change in your own self, even after a few months. The very same things that appeared to be very bad in the past will now appear to be good. A man who has changed in this way speaks in the heart; he speaks by radiation. His eyes speak, because thoughts are more potent than words. Silence speaks more than words, because thoughts are potent. Thoughts radiate. They radiate only the kind of quality which is within you: they are charged by that quality. You will find the atmosphere will be charged like anything. There is no foe, mind that. Our own mind is the foe. Even the very atmosphere will begin to resound. This is what Christ meant when He said to shut yourself in a closet. Shutting yourself in a closet means that in your thought you will be wholly and solely with Him. If more than one sit together in that way, how great a radiation there will be! Satsangs are meant for that. Satsangs are of the Master, not of individuals. They help by radiation.

And more than love is devotion. Devotion is more than love. Love burns the lover, and devotion burns the one he is devoted to. The other takes all the burden. So, faith in the Master is a great blessing. It goes to sprout forth spirituality from within us. With it, man can work wonders.

Mind that, Master does not make slaves of you. He makes friends of you. He has respect for the God in you. He treats all alike, high and low. We are men, and God has made all men equal, with the same privileges. This is a very common-sense matter, and it requires no intellectual efforts. Live up to it, and you will find it to be true. The man who does it is paid then and there, because it gives him peace of heart. That is why Christ said, "Love your enemies."

Some people went to Christ and asked, "What should we do with our enemies?" He said, "Your law says, 'a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye.' That formula was on account of people's hard-heartedness. I give you, 'Love your enemies."' That was a higher religion, do you see?

This is why I said, "There is a religion higher than all religions, and that is Truth, that is Love, that is Life, that is Light." And those who follow the Masters do not walk in darkness. They walk in Light: not the light of the son of man, but the Light shining through him. We are worshippers of that Light.

I wish, if I could go deep down into your hearts, I could convince you and give you an impetus to start that way: the sooner, the better. When you get strength you have simply become receptive. "Let you abide in Him." That is the only way. You abide in Him only when you remember Him. Whatever you remember out of sweetness reacts. That reaction draws you to abide in Him, and you receive that Godhead through receptivity. That is why it is said, Spirituality cannot be taught, but caught. The more devotion and the more surrender we give, the more spiritual we can become. Even the worst of men can do this. The pity is that we do not surrender and we are not devoted. While saying we have love for somebody, we are not devoted. We have other devotions somewhere else. What kind of devotion is that?

Our Master Sawan Singh used to say of those who had talked evil of Him: "I am very glad; in their zealousness, they remember me!" Once He went to a village in which there was much controversy. When He went there, the people received Him with stones; and when Satsang was being given, they threw stones. He turned to them and said, "I thank you. You have given me a very good reception. Thanks for the reception." Now, with these words, they were changed.

So you love. In the beginning some people do not have love for want of right understanding. You must be true to your own self and to the God within you, that's all. Have love for all. Many problems will be solved.

What is good; do at once; what is evil, delay. Make it a point. Leave it to some higher power. During this tour, I met with people from the Tirol. Some Italians in the Tyrolean area had control over the people there. They were revolting, and they had bombs and other weapons. I met the governor, and we had a one-hour talk. He said, "I do not know what to do. I don't follow what is to be done." I told him, "Delay. Light will shine." And what happened? We are now in correspondence. War did not break out.

It can work wonders within our own selves. What does it cost any man? How much does it cost? Mind that, I have love for all. Even if you fight, I have love for both sides. I tell you honestly, I have love for those who are awakened, who have the right understanding; and I love the others for pity's sake. I want to raise them up.

With Masters' sayings, Their very brevity is the soul of Truth. Masters never give long yarns. They say in a few words and those words are pregnant with meaning. They never dwell on them. "Love and all things shall be added unto you" – only a few words. How can all things be added unto you? Try it and see. Practice it and you will find out. People do not realize the truth of it. Take one thing: take love, for instance; take truthfulness. If you do, you will be changed. And the highest practice, I would say, is coming in contact with the God-in-Action Power, Naam, or Shabda: then all virtues find their abode in you. They come of themselves: some by self introspection, and others by coming in contact with the God-into-Expression Power. Naturally, they will come to you.

(Bibi Hardevi (Taiji) is introduced to sing a prayer, a hymn composed by the Master in His days of discipleship. When it is over the Master comments as follows.)

Master: This is a prayer to the Master to give us one bag of wine – of God intoxication. God is an Ocean of All-Intoxication. And Those Who are the mouthpiece of God are also rolling Waves of Intoxication. This is a prayer. For that Intoxication, we come to the Masters, Those Who are the mouthpiece of God, Those Whose soul drinks deeply of the Intoxication of God, Those Who radiate and Who overflow with that Intoxication. We pray to the Master, "O Master, give us one bag of that Intoxication. Will You, like a tavern man, who gives to everybody, also kindly give us one bag of such Intoxication, by drinking which we forget everything. And to that, You may add the Intoxication of those who are overflowing with Intoxication." And he prays, "O Master, I have been searching for It in all temples, everywhere; yet, I did not find It. But when I came to You, You gave me one drop. With one drop from You, I got Intoxication."

There are two well-known stories in India. One is about Farhad, who was a lover of a princess Shirin. He wanted to marry her. He was madly in love with her, and he was saying here, there, and everywhere, "I will marry her." That looked very awkward to the king. He wondered what to do about it and consulted his minister. His minister advised him to order Farhad to build a canal down from the Himalayas: "Let him do it; he will die in the effort."

So Farhad began to excavate the canal from the Himalaya Mountains so as to pass the very mansion in which she lived. Love knows no burdens, no hardships; he did so and was successful: now the king had no other alternative. Again, he consulted with his minister about what to do. The minister said, "Send out a rumour that the princess has died." When this rumour reached Farhad, he took an axe and struck it into his own head and died. And in the meantime, what happened? When the princess heard about it, she fell down from the roof and died.

This is the extreme of madness: it is madness itself. "But this madness should also be put into the shadow; You may give us such an intoxication that this story of Farhad will be eclipsed."

There is another story about Majnun, who was a lover of a princess named Laila. He was so much in love with her. She used to give out alms every day to all people who came to her. One day he also joined the beggars, just in order to approach her and get alms from her. She gave something to everybody; but when Majnun came up with the cup in his hand, she struck the cup from underneath and threw it down, and it was broken. And Majnun was very jolly; he was dancing with happiness. People asked him, "What has she given you? She has given you nothing. She has only broken your cup." "Oh, you don't know what she has given me," he said. "She has told me that unless you break this cup of the body and forget your own body-consciousness, you are not fit to love."

It was so, that when Majnun entered the town where Laila lived, he used to kiss the very ground on which she walked and the very walls and corridors of the houses of the town, because Laila lived there. Once he was seen kissing the feet of a dog. People asked him, "What are you doing?" "Oh," he said, "One day I saw this dog going down the street of my Laila." This is extreme madness of love. He says that such an intoxication may be given that throws all this madness of love into the shade by comparison.

We go to the Master to get such an intoxication, not for the performance of rites and rituals. This is a religion above all these things. Shamas Tabrez said, "If I leave the body, and my body is cut into pieces and put in some field as manure, whoever bakes the bread with the corn that grows out of that land and whoever serves it on the table" – he did not even mention anything about those who would eat the bread made out of that corn – "will be intoxicated." This is what we are after. This is already within us; but when we come in contact with a mouthpiece of God, we get an impetus: it flares up. So, life comes from life. No books can give it to you, and no outer performance can give it to you. The Masters have said that you cannot find God so easily or quickly, even by saying prayers, performing rituals, giving alms, controlling your senses and having a life of continence, too, as you can by sitting at the feet of a Master. This is the way life comes from life. This is given to you when you develop receptivity. By devotion and surrender, you can develop this receptivity. You have nothing to do. This very thing becomes a part and parcel of your life.

Our Master used to tell a story in which some sculptors or portrait painters, who were foreigners, came to China to show their skills. The king agreed to give them a hall in which to do whatever painting they liked. Some Chinese painters also wanted to have an opportunity to show their skills. The king said, "All right; divide the hall by a curtain." It was a big hall: one wall was given to the foreigners, and the other to their own countrymen. They began to work on the walls. After some time, the painting was ready. The foreigners went to the king and told him, "Our painting is ready. Would you kindly come to visit it?" The king went there and saw that the painting was very beautiful: he was amazed at how lovely it was. As he was coming out, the Chinese painters also said, "Would you kindly have a look at ours?" "All right." When the curtain was taken off, to the amazement of the king, the very same painting that was on the other wall was also on this one. It was exactly there, and still clearer than the other one; because in the original one, done by hand, little imperfect spots did show up here and there; but in the reflection, they were not there. He was amazed and said, "What have you been doing?" When two men are in a competition, they won't let others see what they are doing. "What did you do?" "We have done nothing, sir," they answered. "We have done no labor; we were simply rubbing the wall so much, from day to day, that it now reflects. That's all we have done."

So, it is the love that reflects. That's the rubbing that reflects the Master within you, which is "I, not now I, but the Christ in me." That is devotion. There we are wanting. We may have love: I tell you honestly, "Love knows no burdens. Love beautifies everything." And, "Love and all things shall be added unto you." But devotion is still greater, and surrender, greater still. That love is love where there is devotion and surrender. Where there is no devotion and surrender, there is no love. By devotion and surrender, you lose your ego. You reflect the same as He is, in you: you become Him, Himself, without any effort. This is the highest of all.

Hafiz said the same thing as St. Paul: "Strangely enough, I have forgotten my body; whether I or my Master is here." These are the words. "By name, I am called Hafiz; but I am He, and He, me." This is what is called a Gurumukh in the terminology of the Masters. A Gurumukh is one who becomes a mouthpiece of the Guru. That is God's gift. That becomes the fate of those who have devotion and surrender.

This is the highest thing we have to learn. In love, too, we sometimes transcend limits. I remember I once wrote a letter to my Master, in which I wrote, "I pray You to give me love, a love which demands no recompense, a selfless love, such a love that does not transcend the limits of respect." Sometimes, in love, we transcend the limits of respect. And what did He do? He read that letter and put it on His breast: "I want such people who want to love within respectful moods."

These are the things we have to learn practically. It is not done by intellectual inferences; it is a matter of living. These are almost practically the same. We must learn to love with a love which is selfless, which rises into surrender and devotion. When you love that way, you become a Gurumukh: this is what is called "to become a Gurumukh." When Master has to take over all the burden, you have nothing to fear. A child who has a mother has nothing to fear, nothing to worry about for its clothing and eating and care. We have to live up to it. You will find that in such a way, you will progress wonderfully. As St. Paul says, "You will feel that way: not feel, you will see that way." He makes you a flute through which He breathes life into you, and you give unto others. Emerson said, "Those thoughts which come without thinking are always perfect." Masters never speak from the level of thinking: "Now I have to say this thing; now, that thing." They come of themselves.

So, a Master is God-in-man; do we see that? He does not assert; but He works as Christ, and all other Masters said: "I and my Father are one. It is the Father Who is working through me." He is conscious, all the same. Sometimes Masters have to say Who They are. When one of the disciples said to Christ, "You have been speaking always of the Father. It would suffice us if you would show us the Father." Christ grew indignant over it and said, "I have been so long with you, and you do not know it is the Father working through me?" Then He went so far as to say, "Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father." They are conscious, although They work at the level of the man-body. Masters come from time to time: the world is not without Them, mind that. It is not necessary that They follow the same lineage. No, They may be here, there, everywhere. That Power remains working throughout the world. And wherever that Power is, you will find that He gives you some experience to start with on your inner way. That is the only criterion you can have. But, in due course, you will begin to observe Him within you. The only thing that is required is obedience.

Our Master used to say, "Your whole life may be spent in search of a Godman: that very period of search will be counted for devotion. If you come to the right person, with the Grace of God, all your labors will be crowned with success." Then you have nothing to fear. You have only to be devoted to Him. This is God's Grace working everywhere in this materialistic age. There is an awakening, with God's Grace. I have found it. On this present tour, I have found it. There is a great response everywhere for unity. Religions are trying to make the subjects of their religions merge into one. But what we are speaking of now is not the merging of all religions into one: let people remain in their own religions; but they should all sit together for the same higher religion, which is one for all. They should remain in their own religions and not change them, but follow the religion, which is one for all, given out by all Masters. These are the words you have to write down in your hearts, and never forget to live up to them. You will find a wonderful change; you will live and see for yourselves.

In the beginning it might appear: "Oh, you are a fool. Such and such a man has done you wrong, and you are simply loving him!" Loving does not mean physically mixing. I mean: just have good thoughts for him. Blood cannot be washed away by blood. If there is filth in the gutters, it can be washed away by sweet waters of love. You may be thinking you are apparently losers; but you are not losers, you are gainers. The more you live up to it, the more you will find for your own self that you are progressing. You will have peace of heart. Don't look to the flaws of others: try to wash them with love. Tell others privately what's wrong. And you will also find improvement all around: first your own heart will be improved, and then others and others. Then, in whatever little time you put in for devotion, you will go quicker. That is because, as I told you, meeting God is not difficult: man-making is difficult. An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of theory. We should try to change our way of living at heart. That will give a lasting effect, and a substantial change will come about.

Whatever you hear, put in writing, and keep it with you. Otherwise, you will forget it. Try it from day to day and see how you progress. In talks you learn what you cannot learn by reading scriptures for a long time.

(There is stillness in the room.)

The very atmosphere becomes calm and quiet. We are here to be mad, now. I think we are talking about madness.

(Taiji sings a line.)

Out of the madness of love we will see You; The One Whom I love will come.

Master: It so happened once, that I went to Amritsar, and Master [Sawan Singh] was expected to arrive there. We were all sitting in expectation of His arrival, and the message came that Master was not coming. All were disheartened. Some people dispersed, and I remained there. It was also a madness, I would say. I wrote this poem: "He will come! I will see Him with my own eyes!" I was writing this and going around in madness; and after about an hour, Master came there. So great is the strong attraction of love! This is a poem written at that time.

(Taiji sings again.)

Out of the madness of love, we will see You ...

He must come!

Out of the madness of love, we will see You; The One Whom I love will come. He must come! We will see my loved One! Out of the madness of love, we will see You; The One Whom I love will come. Out of the madness of love, we will see You; O Master Sawan, we must see You! O Perfect One, we will see You! Out of the madness of love, we will see You; The One Whom I love will come.

It so happened that He came after that. So, love is a very great power. Like a glass that does not show your face unless you put something behind it, similarly, the love-polish at the back reflects the Master within – the God within you.

Out of the madness of love, we will see You; O Master Sawan, we must see You! O Perfect One, we will see You!

Master: When the clouds come, the rain falls. It is the forerunner of God's coming, when there is such a pining that nothing else remains between you and the Beloved, the Master. Once, while sitting in the Satsang, Rai Saligram came into that state of madness. The whole Satsang began to feel that same madness. One day, we were celebrating the death anniversary of Hazur, and it happened that the whole Sangat began to cry.

So, love is everything. Love is devotion, and surrender is the most ideal. But love begins with: "If you love me, keep my commandments," as Christ said. That does not cost you anything. You won't be a loser, I assure you. In a short time, you will gain what you could not gain in a lifetime because you will reflect the whole thing: like the painters, who came for this.